Hakeem Gbadamosi – Akure
The leadership of the coastal community of Ayetoro in Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo, on Wednesday, called on the state government to wade into the lingering crisis rocking the community.
According to the community leaders, the situation demands urgent deployment of security operatives into the community to halt further destruction of properties and harassment of innocent people in the area.
This is just as the leaders of the community explained that the N150m oil-spillage compensation paid by Mobil oil to the community was never diverted into personal purses or misappropriated by community leaders.
Speaking on behalf of the leadership, the Ogeloyinbo in Council and the Community Board of Trustees, the Asiwaju of Ayetoro, Gani Ojagbohunmi, distanced the traditional ruler of the town from the disbursement of the compensation, saying the oil-spillage predated his emergence as the monarch of the community
Ojagbohunmi said about four houses and properties had been destroyed by some aggrieved members of the community while properties worth millions of naira were carted away during the protest by some gangsters loyal to a self-styled prophet in the town, Oluwanbe Ojagbohunmi.
According to him, no fewer than 84 buildings had been torched and destroyed over the crisis in the coastal community between 2015 till date, following the Obaship tussle which had been settled in Court.
Ojagbohunmi who is the former Clerk of the House of Representatives explained that the crisis remained in the community since 2015, following the ambition of a self-styled prophet, Oluwanbe Ojagbohunmi, alleging that the prophet has been sponsoring hoodlums to unleash attack on the traditional ruler of the town, Oba Micah Ajijo.
He, however, called on the state government “to urgently mobilise Mobile Police Force and other security agents to Ayetoro Community to maintain law and order”.
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